Projects

Cardio exosomes (2020-2023)

Project title: Biomedical engineering platform for cardio exosomes

Financed by: NTNU Health (NTNU Helse)
                       

Description: Despite the extraordinary potential of the exosomes in protecting the heart, no optimal way to isolate and purify exosomes for characterization and especially for clinical utilization does exist. This project in biomedical engineering will revert this situation by combining nanotechnology, fluid mechanics, biotechnology, physics-based computational modeling and medicine for developing an exosome separation, purification, analysis and treatment platform. The platform will be evaluated by studying exosome purification in fluids from animal hearts and cell cultures, and by the use of the exosome-based material for treatment in of ischemic patients.

Contact: Carlos Dorao, Morten A. Høydal*
*Dept. of Circulation & Medical Imaging, Faculty of Medicine, NTNU

DynDrops (2018-2023)

Project title: Mechanisms controlling droplet growth dynamics during condensation on micro-patterned surfaces

Financed by: ToppForsk program (FRIPRO), Research Council of Norway (NFR).
                       
                      Faculty of Engineering together with Department of Energy and Process Engineering, NTNU
                               

Description: Dropwise condensation is of relevance for several applications such as water harvesting, desalination, liquefaction and thermal management. Understanding droplet formation, growth and droplet dynamics on different surfaces is essential to be able to desing surfaces capable of maintaining the dropwise condensation regime for long periods of time. Available exprimental techniques cannot always access the smallest physical scales governing the process. In this project, numerical modeling is used to describe the evolution of droplets during dropwsise condensation and aid in the understanding of the process.

Contact: Maria Fernandino

Heat transfer mechanisms in two-phase flows (2018-2021)

Project title: Identifying the dominant heat transfer mechanism during two-phase flows.

Financed by: FRINATEK program (FRIPRO), Research Council of Norway (NFR).
                       

Description: The cooling effect in a refrigerator is achieved by a cycle of condensation and vaporization of the refrigerant fluid occurring in heat exchangers consisting of tubes or channels ranging from decades of microns to millimetres in diameter. The design and optimization of such systems depend on accurate models. However, the incomplete understanding of the governing physical mechanisms during phase change heat transfer processes, namely evaporation and condensation, has restricted the development of satisfactory theoretical based models giving rise to a large number of empirically based models with limited application. The focus of this project is to identify the dominant heat transfer mechanisms during boiling and condensation.

Contact: Carlos Dorao

Boiling of fluid mixtures (2013-2019)

Project title: Boiling of multicomponent mixtures in confined geometries.

Financed by: FRINATEK program (FRIPRO), Research Council of Norway (NFR).
                       

Description: Flow boiling is an efficient heat transfer mechanism and as such it is the main choice when it comes to the high heat fluxes encountered in miniaturized process equipment such as micro- and mini-heat exchangers, micro-reactors and fuel cells. The development of two-phase micro-channel technology requires a thorough understanding of the hydrodynamic and thermal behaviour of two-phase flow in such confined geometries. This project focuses on the study of bubble dynamics inside small diameter channels during boiling of refrigerants.

Contact: Maria Fernandino

Annular-mist flows (2014-2018)

Project title: Fundamental study of hydrodynamics and mass transfer in annular-mist flow.

Financed by: FRINATEK program (FRIPRO), Research Council of Norway (NFR).
                       

Description: Flow boiling is an efficient heat transfer mechanism and it is the main choice when dealing with high heat fluxes encountered in the miniaturized process equipment such as micro- and mini-heat exchangers, micro-reactors and fuel cells. The efficiency of two-phase heat exchanger equipment is directly related with the hydrodynamics and thermal behavior of two-phase flow. Then, a fundamental understanding of the underlying physical mechanisms controlling these processes is a key element for the design of more efficient equipment. In this context annular-mist flow regime is particularly relevant since it is one of the most common two-phase flow regimes found in several industrial applications. The project addresses two main topics within the area of annular-mist flow, namely the mathematical modelling and the experimental investigation of annular-mist flow related heat and mass transfer profess during this flow regime.

Contact: Carlos Dorao